Fasteners for securing an externally threaded member to an article such as a plate or the like through an opening therethrough are well known in the art. Examples of such fasteners which utilize free-ends of resilient fingers or tongues for engagement with the threaded member are disclosed respectively in U.S. Pat Nos. 2,239,797; 2,318,708; and 4,200,027, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. Other fasteners which utilize a helically deformed edge of an aperture through which the threaded member is inserted to engage and secure the threaded member to the article are respectively disclosed for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,239,797; 2,318,708; 2,228,548; 2,901,938; 3,362,278 and 4,200,027, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. Yet other fasteners utilize a combination of the free-ends of resilient fingers or tongues and a helically deformed edge of an aperture through which the threaded member is inserted to engage the threads of the threaded member are respectively disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,434,844; 2,494,882; and 3,308,708, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Although fasteners of the type disclosed in the above referenced patents and others heretofor used to secure a threaded member to an article through an opening therein may be used to the particular advantage associated with each, they have characteristically required that the opening be located close to an edge of the article in order that the fastener can be clipped onto the edge over the opening or have otherwise required that the opening go completely through the article and that access be provided to the side of the article opening opposite to the side into which the threaded member is to be received in order to secure and remove the fastener from the article.
An example of a particular application which prior to the present invention has required access to the backside of the article to enable securement and removal of a fastener over an opening through the article through which the threaded member is received from the front side thereof is the adjustment screw(s) for adjusting the direction of vehicular headlights.
In view of the inability or inconvenience in many applications in having to provide access to the edge of an article or to the back side of an article in order to secure a fastener to an opening therein for securing a threaded member to the article inserted into the opening from the front side of the article, a need exists to provide a fastening assembly that can be easily inserted into an opening in an article and secured thereto from the side of the article opening into which the threaded member is to be received and that can be easily removed from the same side of the article.